All Little Silver 5th grade students & parents are invited to find community and learn about why fostering a healthy balance between real life and tech is so important to healthy development at this age. Discussion will be led by Dr. Nicole Pensak, clinical psychologist and Little Silver mom. Dr. Pensak will share the science behind the 5th grade brain as well as practical tips and tricks for finding a healthy life/tech balance. The Balance Project will also share a back-to-school family guide to support.

As parents, it can be challenging to navigate the many decisions surrounding youth sports. Join us for an informative panel discussion featuring experts in youth athletics, including a sports psychologist, former dual Division I athlete, physical therapist, veteran youth soccer coach with 20+ years of experience, and The Balance Project founder, Holly Moscatiello. Together, they'll share evidence-based insights and practical guidance to help parents make informed decisions that support their children's long-term well-being and athletic development. Our goal is for every parent to leave feeling more informed, empowered, and confident in navigating the youth sports journey.

Our kids are growing up in a digital world. How can we help empower them to use tech without letting tech use them? How can we make educated decisions as parents? Want to hear from an expert? Come out to hear from Dr. Nicole Amoyal Pensak about the impact of smartphones, social media, and texting on the adolescent brain. Learn how to help our kids develop resilience skills and protect their brains with considering delay of certain tech as well as intentional usage of the tech you have — wherever your family is in your tech journey. It's never too early to prepare. It's never too late to make adjustments. Make educated decisions for your family. The presentation is for both the students and their parents to attend together. Parents of all ages of children welcome. The event is recommended for students in grades 4-8. ALL STUDENTS WHO ATTEND WILL BE GIVEN A FREE ICE CREAM CONE. Please RSVP by 9/21 so that we can be sure to have enough ice cream on hand for all our kids.

"NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Educator and neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath reveals why digital tools in school consistently undermine learning—and what parents, teachers, and schools can do to push back with purpose. Our children are struggling. Schools, once alive with human connection, are now dominated by screens and digital tools. The result is unmistakable: declining performance, fractured attention, and the slow erosion of rigorous thought. For the first time in recent history, children are falling behind previous generations on many key measures of cognitive development. In The Digital Delusion, neuroscientist and educator Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath reveals how the widespread use of laptops, tablets, and classroom software is undermining how children learn and develop. Drawing on decades of research, he provides practical tools for families to reassess device use at home, equips educators with the means to restore attention-rich learning environments, and helps schools make smarter decisions about technology. He exposes and dismantles the central myths driving the EdTech movement and lays out a clear path for putting people—not programs—back at the center of education. This is not a call to reject technology. It's a call to reclaim real learning." We are reading it together this fall, and we are opening it to all of Virginia. Here is the part that matters most to us. We are inviting parents and teachers into the same room on purpose. Right now they are having two separate conversations about the same problem. We want them reading the same book, better informed, and on the same page. Mondays, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., on Zoom October 19 · November 2 · November 16 · December 7 · January 11 · January 25 Free to attend. You must obtain your own copy of the book. About fifty pages every two weeks. A reading schedule will be sent out to all who register here. If you teach, please know that this is not a complaint about teachers. It is a call to support them. Come to all six or come to one. No commitment, no catching up. We do not record these sessions. Our final session on January 25 is a live Q and A with the author. Dr. Horvath is joining us to take questions from the group. We will be collecting those questions from participants all fall. The Balance Project is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. This event is free and open to the public. Amazon link: https://a.co/d/04dqKcTt Feel free to purchase anywhere you buy books.

Explore the latest kid-safe phones, watches, music players, cameras, and digital wellness tools—all in one place. Meet company representatives, compare products, and discover healthier technology solutions for your family.